should i get a male or a female spider...?

so i have the opportunity to trade for a spider. (*gasp, faint, die!*) this isn't set in stone yet, and is still up in the air but, as you can imagine, i'm a bit giddy. :D it can be either male or female ('06 hatchling), whichever i choose. which should i choose?!?

to aid in the decision, here is what i have now:

females:
4 normals that should breed this season (06-07)
5 normals that should breed next season (07-08) -- in addition to the previous 4 females
1 100% het albino that should breed this season or next
1 50% het albino that should breed next season
1 100% het hypo that should breed this season or next
1 pastel that should breed next season

males (all ready to breed this season):
1 albino
1 hypo
1 pastel
1 100% het pied

in the incubator:
8 het hypo eggs

in the momma:
50% het pied eggs (or soon to be eggs--i think she ovulated and i just caught the end of the swelling--looks to be approaching a shed so fingers are crossed!)

SO, if i get a male, he may breed this season which would be sweet! if i get a female it will take longer, but her first clutch could be with the pastel (or a super pastel if i produce a male in time) which would be super sweet!

do i go for a male and make my own females? do i go for a female and be a year ahead on making bumble bees or killer bees? or...?

What an exciting opportunity!! If it were me, I would go for a male. Spider being a dominate trait, you can breed him with a number of those beautiful "normals" and have a whole bunch of spiders to "play" with. If you get a female, then you have to take your spiders one clutch at a time. ;) So, you may have to wait a tad longer on making bees (unless your collection changes again between now and then) but in my world, it would be worth it.

I go with a male same resson has JLC, if you get the male make a project of a spithe pied to see what comes aut!!:D

get them both lol :carouse:.


I would go for the male and breed him to a few females and then keep some of the baby female spiders that hatch, raise them up and breed them to the pastel, Bees rock:rockon:

I vote male. You have lots of females now...go with a male. ;) They behave better (Ducks the flying dishes) lol.

What is your favorite out of bumblebees, honeybees, and albino spiders?

Is the trade amounts equal for both the male and female or is there alot more trade for the male? ;)

I voted for the male.The more female spiders you produce later the more bumblebees:sweeet: .

albino spiders are my most favorite, then honeybees then bumble bees. so i definitely would eventually want females to breed with my albino, hypo and pastel males... so maybe getting a female now would put me farther ahead on the albino spider rather than a bumble bee, since i probably would go for that cross first. so much to choose with the spiders! :P

the trade value for a male is higher, but that really isn't of much consideration to me because the trade is for a group of high end cresteds, and i have no problem with adding more geckos to the trade in order to get a male. ;)

or you could get the male and breed him to that female het hypo you already have and maybe in a few years you will produce a hypo spider. Or my saying is "When in doubt, go all out" meaning get a pair if you can lol ;) :)

ha, a pair would be awesome, but i'm not sure that's gonna be possible. :P

I voted for male. I think it would be the wise choice :)

Either way, I don't see how you can go wrong. ;) :gj:

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Originally Posted by mlededee

ha, a pair would be awesome, but i'm not sure that's gonna be possible. :P

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just an idea tho:fim: lol
:tongue2:

male--

i voted for a female spider (tarantula) cause females live longer than males... LOL i guess i should have read the thread before voting LOL

hahahahaha sorry

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Originally Posted by recycling goddess

i voted for a female spider (tarantula) cause females live longer than males... LOL i guess i should have read the thread before voting LOL

hahahahaha sorry

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Your stumble got me thinking....do male and female Ball Pythons have the same life-expectancy?

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Originally Posted by Mendel's Balls

Your stumble got me thinking....do male and female Ball Pythons have the same life-expectancy?

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yes.

-adam

The pair would be ideal, but given the choices... MALE hands down. He can spread the love...LOL Good luck....

These are 06' babies. I suppose male/female depends on how fast of turnaround would you like with your albino spider project.

You currently have a homozygous albino male ready to breed, but with an 06' female you can expect ~2 seasons before she's up to size to breed, and then yet you'll have to raise up those 100% het babies in order to get albino spiders. So roughly 4-5 years.

With the male spider able to breed in about 1 year, you can have all sorts of spiders to play with, trade some for other morphs to tinker with...

But currently you're working with Het albino females, so you could have spiders 50% het for albino, have to prove out the babies in another two years. Looking at 3ish years this route for albino spiders.

Just a bit to think about.;) Either decision is going to be great! Spiders ROCK!

I'd go for the guy too. It only takes one to knock up the herd!

i voted for the female, you have several males ready to go now. i'd rather be a year ahead on bees. bumblebees rock! to make combos, you have to have the girls ready. just my thoughts



vaughn

thanks vaughn, just when i thought i'd decided on the male, lol. :P

I also have to say a female.... Being that you already have breedable males, you need more females to keep up with the pace. That first clutch that the female spider throws will still produce males (we hope) that will be ready the following year. But with you already having a pastel male to breed to her in 2-3 years, you'll have bees in 3 years, AND still be able to produce supers the same year.

With a male, you'll have 9 normals ready to breed by the time he's ready... (maybe 4 if he goes late this year), and your pastel female next year if you want to make bees. I guess you could make way more clutches earlier with the male.. but the female just adds so much depth. If it were me, I would get the female this year... and then in about this time next year, I would get either a late 06 male, or an 07 male.

Just my .02 :)

I said female too.....you look low on female morphs ;)

If your goal is to produce a recessive/dom combo, then I would go with the female because you have no morph females. That means that next year, you can concentrate on breeding your male morphs to your het females and producing yourself some female morphs....then the following year, you can breed a male morph to your female spider. Also, this way you would end up with only 100% het and spider 100% hets.....since you have only het females now, you would just be makeing a bunch of possible hets if you got a male to breed.

Ha....but it all depends on what your goal is. Do you want to produce spiders next year? are you only interested in combos? what females were you planning on setting your current male morphs up with next year? are your trying to build your collection (i.e. holdback the majority of spiders that you produce)? ...etc...etc...

Ya know....there's a certain wisdom in consdering the female spider. Granted, you get a chance to make a lot more spiders faster if you go male...but if you want to pair up your ladies with some of your other males as well....then it ends up not being a simple choice at all.


And if you hold back a female spider from your first clutches, you're a year behind raising her up. BUT, if you hold back a male spider (hopefully from the female's first clutch!) then he will be sexually mature that much faster. Of course, you may have waited longer to get that first clutch to begin with.....

Ahhh...decisions decisons! I guess it boils down to how old these spiders are now...and how patient you can be to wait for sexual maturity.

ooooh this is painful. of course i would LOVE to be producing spiders as early as this coming season, which means that i'd have to go with a male. but going with a male does put me a year behind on combos that i would get much faster with a female considering my current collection.

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Originally Posted by daniel1983

If your goal is to produce a recessive/dom combo, then I would go with the female because you have no morph females. That means that next year, you can concentrate on breeding your male morphs to your het females and producing yourself some female morphs....then the following year, you can breed a male morph to your female spider. Also, this way you would end up with only 100% het and spider 100% hets.....since you have only het females now, you would just be makeing a bunch of possible hets if you got a male to breed.

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i do have a female pastel, but she won't be ready to breed until at least next year. but she is my only female morph and i do have a male pastel now so the bumblebees are covered regardless of whether i get a male or female spider. but the rest of that makes a lot of sense, with producing 100% hets instead of possible hets and whatnot.

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Originally Posted by daniel1983

are you only interested in combos? what females were you planning on setting your current male morphs up with next year? are your trying to build your collection (i.e. holdback the majority of spiders that you produce)? ...etc...etc...

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i love spiders. the goal is spiders and combos. i do want to build my collection, but not too quickly (space! time!), so i don't plan on holding back every morph i produce. i think i need to make a flowchart, mapping out what females i want to put with what males this coming season. perhaps that will aid in the decision.

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Originally Posted by JLC

And if you hold back a female spider from your first clutches, you're a year behind raising her up. BUT, if you hold back a male spider (hopefully from the female's first clutch!) then he will be sexually mature that much faster. Of course, you may have waited longer to get that first clutch to begin with.....

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AAAAAAGGHHHH!!! :psychotic

Since you seem to be so torn why not just get both???


More is better :D

yeah, well that would be nice wouldn't it? maybe i'll go ahead and get that lemon blast i like so much while i'm at it. :zerb:

That's the spirit!!

Why stop there???

:halohorn:

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...bpfirehead.jpg

now that's just plain cruel!

just to be a tease, i wanted to say that i chose...FEMALE! she will be an established hatchling from exotics by nature (ballpythonmorphs.com). they are sending me pics this week, and once i decide on one she is all mine! :banana: :D :sunny: whoohooo for trades!!! :party: :clap:

OH CONGRATS!! :clap: Can't wait to see pics.

me either! :P :pinkele:

Ohhhh Emily! That is SO awesome! I'm psyched for ya! Choose soon so we can see the pictures!!

Emily, great choice. You can't go wrong with Sean and Celia. I don't know if you've seen the Spiders that I just hatched, but the sire to that clutch came from Sean. Congrats, and show us some pics as soon as you can.

I'd get the male also.I guess I would want alot more spider's for trade's ext.

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Originally Posted by muddoc

Emily, great choice. You can't go wrong with Sean and Celia. I don't know if you've seen the Spiders that I just hatched, but the sire to that clutch came from Sean. Congrats, and show us some pics as soon as you can.

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thanks! they are really great people. i got my het pied male from them earlier this year and he is quite the studly little man. :)

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Originally Posted by emilio

I'd get the male also.I guess I would want alot more spider's for trade's ext.

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i decided that for my own breeding goals a female would work best, even though i'll have to wait a little longer to breed her. this way i can put her with any of 3 different males that i have right off the bat--pastel, hypo or albino. that's gonna be a fun choice! or maybe by then i'll have a male spider as well so it won't be so hard after all. :bubbles:

Congratulations! Can't wait to see pictures of her! :sweeet:

good choice emily! having female morphs opens up alot choices... and it takes longer to get them to size. gives you a year or two to maybe get another male or choose which one?



vaughn